The Fitness Membership That Saved Me From Sitting at a Desk All Day

My weekday routine goes a little something like this: Sit and drink coffee. Sit and boot up computer. Check hair in bathroom mirror to make sure dry shampoo doesn’t look like dandruff. Sit and work. Small talk with coworkers. Sit and work. Bathroom break. Sit and work. Lunch at desk. Sit and work. Maaayyybe make it to the gym before crawling home for dinner, where I sit on my butt some more and reflect on how tired I am.

You get where I’m going with this. If sitting was an exercise, my bum would be in amazing shape—like superhero-in-tights-shape. Sadly sitting doesn’t really do us any favors. And I should know: I’m so freaking good at it.

While the solution is fairly obvious—stand up, doy—giving in to that sedentary life is so easy. That’s why Peerfit is my butt’s new BFF.

Imagine a fitness subscription that lets you sign up for a range of fitness classes and gyms near your office without any blackout times or price hikes. That’s Peerfit in a nutshell, but it gets better: Peerfit works with employers and your insurance to foot the bill, and it comes with social networking tools so you can coordinate workouts with friends at the office.

Here’s how it works:

Create a personal or corporate account. If your insurance/company won’t chip in, you can get a subscriptionfor $8.95 a month, then pay a discounted member rate for each class you book.

Find your gym or a workout class. You can filter your search by type (boxing, dance, HIIT, yoga) and reserve your spot with one click.

Grab a friend. Once your class is booked, you can sync it to your calendar and invite coworkers with an email invite or social media event or by sharing a special link.

Sweat and save your butt from another full day in a chair.

I can attest that the system works. Our associate fitness editor (and wonderful pal) Jamey Powell lured my hermit self into the world with a boxing invite. After an hour of winded jokes, punches, and kicks, I felt totally revived and ready to annihilate my to-dos. A few days later, I kept the momentum going with a lunchtime session at my favorite NYC studio, 305 Fitness. It’s weird how making time for exercise becomes second nature when you’ve got a mile-long list of classes to try and good friends to sweat with.

So look, sitting might not be the new smoking, but being active with friends has benefits on benefits. Wouldn’t you rather give your desk a break and do your body and mind some good? Trust me when I say I can’t think of a $9-per-month subscription with more value than Peerfit. My butt totally agrees.